Toh 3071Untitled

Exposition of Toh 3071 - The Tengyur Treatise Collection

Context

Scripture Toh 3071 from the Tengyur (the Tibetan Treatise Collection) is a work belonging to the Mahayana Northern Tibetan tradition, composed during the great translation enterprise of Tibetan scholars from the eighth to twelfth centuries. The Tengyur is a large collection of treatises, doctrinal works, and commentaries on the scriptures, reflecting the profound development of Buddhadharma thought in the Northern Tibetan tradition.

Although this scripture currently has no complete Vietnamese translation, through the context of the Tengyur we can understand it as an exegetical work intended to clarify core issues of the Buddhadharma. Works in the Treatise Collection often address themes such as the bodhisattva path (Bodhisattvayana), the nature of consciousness, or the teaching on buddha-nature widely found in the Mahayana.

Main Content

In the Northern Tibetan tradition, these treatises often revolve around two main pillars: the theory of buddha-nature and the bodhisattva path. They affirm that all beings can become Buddhas because they possess buddha-nature — an infinite potential latent in the consciousness of all species.

Such treatises also often teach that liberation is not the destruction of consciousness or abandonment of the world, but the thorough transformation of cognition — from an obscure state bound by ignorance (avidya) into the lucid state of the Buddha path. The bodhisattva path is presented as an active path, based on immeasurable compassion (mahakaruna) and perfect wisdom (prajnaparamita), in which each bodhisattva commits to awakening not only for oneself but for all beings.

According to the context of the Northern Tibetan tradition, these treatises also address means of practice (upaya), including the four immeasurables (metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha), meditation, and especially esoteric monastic methods (tantra) to accelerate the process of practice.